John Clancy is an American

playwright A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes play (theatre), plays, which are a form of drama that primarily consists of dialogue between Character (arts), characters and is intended for Theatre, theatrical performance rather than just Readin ...

, novelist and

director Director may refer to: Literature * ''Director'' (magazine), a British magazine * ''The Director'' (novel), a 1971 novel by Henry Denker * ''The Director'' (play), a 2000 play by Nancy Hasty Music * Director (band), an Irish rock band * ''D ...

. He was a co-founder and first Artistic Director of the

New York International Fringe Festival The New York International Fringe Festival, or FringeNYC, was a fringe theater festival and one of the largest multi-arts events in North America. It took place over the course of a few weeks in October, spread on more than 20 stages across se ...

and its producing organization The Present Company.

Career

John Clancy's written work centers mainly on the American experience, and is characterized by

dark humor Black comedy, also known as black humor, bleak comedy, dark comedy, dark humor, gallows humor or morbid humor, is a style of comedy that makes light of subject matter that is generally considered taboo, particularly subjects that are normally ...

and

farce Farce is a comedy that seeks to entertain an audience through situations that are highly exaggerated, extravagant, ridiculous, absurd, and improbable. Farce is also characterized by heavy use of physical comedy, physical humor; the use of delibe ...

. His best-known play is ''Fatboy: An American Grotesque'', a modern re-working of Alfred Jarry's

Ubu Roi ''Ubu Roi'' (; "Ubu the King" or "King Ubu") is a play by French writer Alfred Jarry, then 23 years old. It was first performed in Paris in 1896, by Aurélien Lugné-Poe's Théâtre de l'Œuvre at the Nouveau-Théâtre (today, the Théâtre de ...

. His monologue ''The Event'' premiered in Edinburgh in 2009 and has gone on to tour Germany, the Netherlands, Australia and the United States and has been translated into Greek and German. Clancy's directing has earned six Fringe First Awards (

Edinburgh Festival Fringe The Edinburgh Festival Fringe (also referred to as the Edinburgh Fringe, the Fringe or the Edinburgh Fringe Festival) is the world's largest performance arts festival, which in 2024 spanned 25 days, sold more than 2.6 million tickets and featur ...

) and two Best of Fringe Awards (

Adelaide Fringe Festival Adelaide Fringe, formerly Adelaide Fringe Festival, is Australia’s biggest arts festival and is the world's second-largest annual arts festival (after the Edinburgh Festival Fringe), held in the South Australian capital of Adelaide. Between ...

). He was awarded a 2005

Obie Award The Obie Awards or Off-Broadway Theater Awards are annual awards given since 1956 by ''The Village Voice'' newspaper to theater artists and groups involved in off-Broadway and off-off-Broadway productions in New York City. Starting just after th ...

for Sustained Excellence of Direction, a 2002

Glasgow Herald ''The Herald'' is a Scottish broadsheet newspaper founded in 1783. ''The Herald'' is the longest running national newspaper in the world and is the eighth oldest daily paper in the world. The title was simplified from ''The Glasgow Herald'' in ...

Angel Award for Excellence in Direction, a 1997

New York Magazine ''New York'' is an American biweekly magazine concerned with life, culture, politics, and style generally, with a particular emphasis on New York City. Founded by Clay Felker and Milton Glaser in 1968 as a competitor to ''The New Yorker'' a ...

Award, and a 2008 Dialogue ONE Award for Outstanding Contribution to Theatre. He served as Executive Director o
The League of Independent Theater
New York City's only 501(c)6 advocacy organization for the independent theater territory and Board President of The Independent Theater Fund,https://www.indietheaterfund.org/, a charitable foundation formed to sustain and strengthen the artists, companies, venues and practitioners of independent theater in New York City. He is currently the President of Little Pharaoh Enterprises, an arts consultancy firm focusing on celebrating the art and heritage of the area known as Little Egypt in southern Illinois.

Personal life

Clancy lives in Mt. Carmel, IL with his wife Nancy Walsh. He is the owner of the Little Egypt Arts Center, which is dedicated to local artwork, and also has a performance space to let local artists perform. In the future, there will also be a cafe that has more space for local art called Oasis.

List of authored plays, monologues and other work

* Fatboy * The Event * Captain Overlord's Folly * When You Join Us * The True Tragedy of Salome * The Piano Store Plays * The Apocalyptic Road Show * Secret Agent Man * Paper Man * Notice of Default and Opportunity to Cure * The Fire Sermon * The Broccoli Incident * Another Beautiful Story * Postmen (teleplay) * Good Credit (screenplay)

Novels

* St.Lincoln, IL pop. Infinity

Short Stories

* Ruined Beauty and Other Stories

Memoirs

* Happiness on the Hard Road

References

20th-century American dramatists and playwrights Rowan University faculty Living people 21st-century American dramatists and playwrights 20th-century American male writers 21st-century American male writers American male dramatists and playwrights Year of birth missing (living people) {{US-dramatist-stub